Pacific Harbor - Postwar fun in 7.5' x 16'

Did you get a Harbor Belt Genset switcher?

Looks good...I see your operating "pit" is the center....I would suggest to put backdrops around the center facing out for others viewing the layout.

Yep! The MTH version in Pacific Harbor Line livery. Should be here later this week, or next. Super stoked!!! Now I'm eyeing my Williams NW-2 for a kitbash into a PHL SW1200:

Actually this is an around-the-room layout. There will be backdrops all the way around the edges (on the walls) but the operators and spectators will all be in center. Access door on the far left, with lift bridge as duck-under.

Thanks!

Steve

Very neat design.

I like how the operating pit becomes the harbor with the lift bridge duck under. Should be a lot of fun to operate.

Another one to add depending on date, is a bob-nosed GP9 that the old Harbor Belt Line used before becoming PHL. SP/UP and ATSF/BNSF power would also be at home on the layout. PHL went "retro" for a while on their paint schemes as their locomotive fleet came from various sources so you could also "patch out" some other diesels for your fleet.

Thanks Matt! My NW-2 is in UP livery so it would be OK as-is, but that ex-Conrail SW1200 sure does look cool with the art deco PHL lettering.

My folks live in the area and my dad is the one who got me into model trains. We'll have to come stop by your club layout and check it out! I think it's been 25 years since I saw it last

Steve

Actually, we've only been there 18 years. Belmont has been there for over 30 and their model of the harbor was pretty impressive. They even had a model of the old coal dump facility on Miner street that fed the cars through by gravity. It worked at one time. We talked about building one in the early days, but the space requirements were way too much.

UP usually ran coal trains in headed up by a pair of six-axle diesels, usually GE. The only 4-axle non-PHL unit I've seen down there is a BNSF Genset. As for the NW2, some Conrail Blue spray paint and white dry transfer letters will make it a good substitute for a PHL SW.

The PHL "retro" units I saw were in Santa Fe zebra stripe (which is on almost all of their locomotives now), CNW, SP (gray/scarlet and Black Widow), Conrail (still on the switchers), and a Maroon and Gold scheme that looks like a cross between Wisconsin Central and Santa Fe. The first time I saw the SP Black Widow I thought I'd seen a ghost. A lot of their power is six-axle for moving container trains. I've wanted to get photos, but between the trains and all the trucks moving around the port there aren't really a lot safe places to photograph PHL's operations.

I must be remembering the date wrong, it was definitely at your current location by the Friendship Bell!

I really love the zebra stripes on the PHL genset switcher, what a cool looking locomotive!! I'm really looking forward to operating that one.

Thanks for the positive feedback and suggestions

Steve

Forgot to mention. I'm really liking this layout concept.

Thanks! I really wanted to include these old operating accessories from my dad, but going from freight car to freight car seemed so... redundant.

The harbor idea came in part from the cool use of shower / privacy glass to simulate water in this thread: https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...yout-pictures-please

But the kicker was when I was browsing photos of the PHL on Railphotos.net and saw the picture below, of one of the gensets hauling well cars across the Badger Bridge. When I did a Google Image search for the Badger Bridge, of course the similarities to the Lionel lift bridge #12782 were evident and the entire layout sort of sprang into clarity in an instant.

My dad has MS and is in a power chair now, so an accessible layout design was important... along with a bunch of other requirements including operating accessories for my boys (ages 6 and 9) and the desire to be able to run two trains at once. Plus wanting to have a reasonable (if not precisely "scale") use of the operating accessories to do "real work"... and a love of switching ops brought on in equal measure by exposure to Inglenook Sidings, Timesaver, and the writing of Lance Mindheim.

Long story short this harbor layout should be pretty easy to build (in terms of benchwork) and offer a lot of "play" value. Most likely going to build the town section so it's up on a hill, aka San Pedro

Thanks again!

Steve

Nice photo. Didn't know they had 6-axle gensets in their roster.

For the dock area, you could paint a Lionel Tugboat yellow and rename it "Angels Gate". That's the ex-Navy tug belonging to the Maritime Museum. Haven't seen the old girl in a while.

Layout related updates:

1) I've got a line on a #12782 Lift Bridge - woot!

2) I found a Lionel No. 60 trolley in Pacific Electric livery - double woot!!

This plan appears to be coming together. Hoping to get started on benchwork this weekend.

Steve

Update:

- Lift bridge arrived (thanks Mikey!)
- Benchwork has begun
- Layout modified to maintain exterior room access

I built a 32" x 96" bench using 3/4" Baltic birch for the frame and 1/2" for the top.

In the process of doing this I realized that I wasn't ready to give up the exterior access door from this room to the outside, so that triggered a redesign.

It has the same spirit as the original but actually packs more features into less space. I've also layed it out in tubular track. I might change back to Gargraves / Ross, not sure yet, but the main ideas here will remain.

In any event, I'm really pleased with the fiddle yard in the top left. That will represent "the rest of the world" and serve as the source of inbound traffic for the harbor via the mainline that runs all the way around the outside of the layout. The lack of such a yard sort of bothered me about the original layout and this solves it nicely. O-54 curves used on the mainline, and added a Conveyor Lumber Loader for good measure, too

The inner harbor beltline has an Inglenook at top center next to the bridge to use for car sorting in preparation for delivery to the industries around the port edge. It uses a mix of mostly O-42 and a few O-31 curves on the tighter corners. Will be fine for the operating dump car and lumber car the operating accessories are designed around.

The switching layout of the Coal Elevator and Gantry Crane has gotten more complicated with a switchback off the run-around loop, but I've done some simulations in RR-Track and it should be no problem. It's got a real Timesaver feel.

The whole layout is very "puzzley" which is something I'm totally OK with and feel will add to the enjoyment of the finished product.

Anyways just wanted to share the progress to date! This is a fun project.

Steve

This is going to be interesting.  Keep us updated--photos...

I definitely like where this is going. Well thought out design. Keep us posted.